What I learnt about Dubai!!
As far as I can tell Dubai is positioning itself as the new, New York and from what we saw it is well on its way! Me and Mrs Marshall were there for four days and tried to see as much as we could, the old and new, the big and the bigger and the sublime and the ridiculous; the ridiculous being the opportunity to tuck in to a chocolate fountain for £87 in the iconic self rated 7 star hotel that is Burj Al Arab…despite Caroline being pregnant and as ever loving chocolate, that was a price too far for sitting in the lobby like the guests at a house party that don’t know anyone and they nervously sit by the front door waiting to find the right moment to leave. We chose to have a look at the outside from the equally expensive adjacent hotel, the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, although first budget holiday tip for you is go to this hotel and head for the restaurant on the beach and you can enjoy a pizza with the Burj Al Arab as the back drop for what it will cost you at Pizza Express..In Dubai you want to make sure you know where the bargain restaurants are situated, as we were informed on the Big Bus Tour around the shining star of one of the seven United Arab Emirates, Dubai means you can DO loads and BUY what you want and that is true in DOBUY!
Now, I am not using Wikipedia or the guide book, this is off the top of my slightly pink from the Middle East sunshine head, the main indicators why that the over used, scripted bus tour statement is spot on and why I can’t wait to go back;
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (ok, may have looked that one up), is the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and the Ruler of Dubai, the man with a vision to make sure Dubai is to have a prosperous future beyond 2016, when the Oil, that of course has fuelled their economy, is literally going run out! The Sheikh is obviously protecting his own interests, but I guess he could have sat back and let one of his 17 children worry about the future, no way as far as I can tell. The man that has been connected to buying Liverpool FC and has a few decent horses in his stable is going one furlong further than most of his counterparts in that part of the world and his building a city, that will see them strive forward many more years after 2016. I have to say that is the full extent of my knowledge of this well educated fourth generation Al Maktoum, but what he is pushing for in Dubai is, for me, to be admired. Those who prefer the green fields and the picturesque views of Oxfordshire may disagree, its fine to love both you know and there is, I am sure, a big debate to be had by some on the local and global effect on the environment, but that is for another blog, this is what I loved about Dubai.
In one city, that currently has a rapidly growing population of 1.4 million, of which 80% are Ex-Pats, you can Ski in real snow, in what is effectively a giant freezer, you can go down to the beach, buy cheap gold from one of the old Souks (markets), take a trip on the Dubai Creek in one of the old Dhows that fight for space on the overcrowded waterway in the old part of the city. You can go horse racing, camel racing and there is plenty of sailing boats to watch racing off the coast that start from the Yacht club. There is one of the world’s finest golf courses, the Emirates, that is already firmly placed on the tour and there is another one opening up soon, that some bloke called Tiger Woods is building and then naming after himself, the cheek of it – by the way if you want to buy some land to build on around that impending course then ask the bank manager to loan you around 10 million pounds! With the loose change you can then buy an apartment on the Palm. Much has been said about the new island off the coast that is linked to the mainland by a 3 lane motorway..some of the facts; You can see it from the moon, (has anyone confirmed that, don’t think it was there when Buzz and Neil were there), it has been engineered using the same methods that has seen the Netherlands reclaim all their land back from the sea. The apartments were first being sold for approx £600,000 off plan, when they first went on sale 6 years ago, they are now adding the finishing touches that could see them going for about 2.5 million pounds! The Palm shaped island has taken only 5 years to build, an incredible feat, taking in to consideration the size of the project, it has added a further 520km to Dubai’s coastline and that was the main objective of the Ruler of Dubai, to increase the coastline from the original 72 km. With the success of the Palm and the other two palms under construction and the ‘World’ project that has featured in papers all around the world (ironically) it will increase the shoreline to a whopping 1500km! That is when the tourism numbers will be at a projected 15 million a year, at the moment 5 million tourists venture to this little part of the Middle East with a big future.
If you fancy a long weekend away It is well worth going to see this amazing place; You will walk around with mouth wide open as you try to take in the major construction work that goes on and on 24/7, that in itself is strange when you think about actually walking around what seems like the world’s biggest building site and enjoy looking at all the heavy hot work that is taking place. To me it felt like walking in to the Wonka factory and seeing the Oompa Loompa’s working away, you see them get off the buses and work their socks off all day and all night. In reality most of them are shipped in from India, Pakistan and China and work for next to nothing in searing heat. This is one area of criticism that the ruler of Dubai seems not want to directly answer! You will see the plans and the concrete for the new automated driverless train system that will open next year (the traffic jams is one negative I will not forget), the billboards that cover the vast area of work that has already begun for ‘Dubailand’ (I kid you not) that has promised to be bigger than Disneyland in Florida, Universal and Dreamworks studios see the future is sandy and have staked their claim in the dunes as part of that project. And all this is towered by the endless skyscrapers that tower above the two ends of the city – the Old financial sector and the newer, beach/marina area that is where the bulk of the work is going on.
There are two things that to me sum up Dubai; Firstly the opening of the World’s tallest building later on this year in the city the Burj Dubai (Burj means Tower in the Arabic) is amazing in the fact that if any other country wants to muscle in and steal the title of the Worlds tallest man made construction away from them, they have added the failsafe of adding more floors to the 2km high building in what can only ever be described as the Lego effect! Amazing to think that when the offices, apartments and hotels open up inside this awesome yet weird pistol looking building there will be more people inside it on daily basis that work and live in Oxford and Bicester together – that may scare some of you, I know it does me! Are you getting that they don’t do things by half? You are right, the new shopping mall which will sit at the bottom of the Burj Dubai is going to be called the ‘Mother of All Malls!!’
And lastly, I mentioned that you can see the Palm from the moon; Well if someone ever dared to find out that in fact you can’t see the Palm from the moon, the ruler of Dubai will no doubt get NASA in to build them a moon that you can see it from – Now that is Dubai!
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